If I must have an ill, may it be real, That I may meet it eye to eye and fight, And wheresoever it may strength reveal Get after it with all my main and might. The woe that but impends and wears the mind With worry deep and most vexatious care, Is harder fighting than the realler kind, For when you come to strikeโit isn't there!
John Kendrick BangsWhose heart doth hold the Christmas glow Hath little need of Mistletoe; Who bears a smiling grace of mien Need waste no time on wreaths of green; Whose lips have words of comfort spread Needs not the holly-berries redโ His very presence scatters wide The spirit of the Christmastide.
John Kendrick BangsYou know the Model of your Car. You know just what its powers are. You treat it with a deal of care, Nor tax it more than it will bear. But as to self โ that's different. Your mechanism may be bent, Your carbureter gone to grass, Your engine just a rusty mass. Your wheels may wobble and your cogs Be handed over to the dogs, And on you skip, and skid, and slide, Without a thought of things inside. What fools indeed we mortals are To lavish care upon a Car, With ne'er a bit of time to see About our own machinery!
John Kendrick BangsAlthough man is already ninety per cent water, the Prohibitionists are not yet satisfied.
John Kendrick BangsWhat fools indeed we morals are to lavish care upon a car, with never a bit of time to see about our own machinery!
John Kendrick BangsA nasty day! A nasty day! 'Twas thus I heard a critic say Because the skies were bleak and grayโ And yet it somehow seemed to me The day was all that it should be. I looked it very closely o'er; Its hours still were twenty-four, With sixty minutes eachโno lessโ For deeds of good and helpfulness; And every second full of chance To give the day significance; And every hour full of growth For everybody but the slothโ I couldn't see it quite that way, For though the skies were bleak and gray The day itself, it seemed to me, Was all a day could rightly be.
John Kendrick Bangs